Published 4:00 am, Saturday, September 9, 2000

2000-09-09 04:00:00 PDT OAKLAND -- The Federal Aviation Administration has recommended that an Alaska Airlines mechanics supervisor in Oakland be stripped of his license for falsifying a plane maintenance record, his attorney said yesterday.

The supervisor, John E. Nanney, 40, of Tracy, disputes the FAA finding that he falsely reported that a throttle problem on an MD-80 had been fixed on Dec. 1, 1998, at the airline's maintenance hangar in Oakland, said his attorney, Steven Bauer of San Francisco.

"John stands 100 percent behind his work as a supervisor," Bauer said. "We just think it's plain wrong that the FAA is trying to take his license away. We hope the judge will agree with us."

The issue is unrelated to the Alaska Airlines crash in January off the Southern California coast that killed all 88 aboard. The Flight 261 crash investigation has focused on the failure of the jackscrew, a key part of the MD-80's horizontal stabilizer.

But Nanney's case has been a critical part of a continuing investigation by a federal grand jury in San Francisco over allegations that mechanics at Alaska's hangar in Oakland falsified maintenance records.

Also in response to the Flight 261 crash, the FAA audited Alaska's maintenance programs in April and threatened to strip the airline of the authority to maintain its fleet. The FAA later backed down, saying the beleaguered airline was making major changes in its repair operations.

The plane in Nanney's case, tail number N953AS, is the same model as the jet that crashed. Nanney and Alaska have denied any problems with the twin-engine jetliner, which was built in 1986 and remains in service along with the airline's 35 other MD-80 planes. Alaska hopes to phase out the MD-80s within five years and fly only Boeing 737s.

Maintenance records of 12 MD- 80s, including those for the doomed Flight 261 jet, have been under scrutiny by a federal grand jury in San Francisco investigating allegations that mechanics falsified entries.

Nanney and Alaska have denied any problems with the plane involved in the June decision to revoke his license.

"I can tell you that there was never a problem with that aircraft with regard to alleged throttle split issues," Alaska spokesman Greg Witter said yesterday. "Not at that time, nor was there anything subsequently reported by mechanics or pilots."

The Oakland maintenance facility probe began in 1998 when Pittsburg-resident John Liotine, a former Alaska lead mechanic, came forward with allegations.

As a result of the probe, the FAA proposed fining the airline $44,000 and recommended that Nanney and two other supervisors have their mechanic's licenses revoked. The agency accused Alaska of operating two planes in an "unairworthy" manner. Alaska has denied any wrongdoing and is challenging the penalty.

In a development Thursday related to the Flight 261 crash, U.S. District Judge Charles Legge in San Francisco amended his order barring any tests that could alter the wreckage of the plane. Legge agreed to a request by the plane's manufacturer and said tests could be done if all evidence was preserved.